From A-ha to ZZ-Top: This blog lists all (or at least most) of the live gigs and events I have been to from 1983 til now!

Sunday, December 11, 2016

10.12.2016 The Human League at Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham,support: Ekkoes and Blancmange

‘These are the things
that dreams are made of’ is not just a line from an iconic Human League track
but this also sums up the vibes of the night.

Three amazing acts.

Support act ‘Ekkoes’ were
on stage quite early and had to battle somewhat difficult acoustics but still
managed to bring a highly energetic and fun set to the audience. They performed
many tracks from their ‘Elekktricity’ album as well as a fun cover of Raf/Laura
Branigan’s 1984 hit: ‘Self control’. Would have loved to hear more of Rosalee O’Connell’s
voice which was somewhat drowned out at times but nonetheless it was a great
set. It was also very nice to see an excited frontman who said that ‘Mirror Man’
is his favourite tune.

Well done, Ekkoes xx

Neil Arthur’s Blancmange
needed no introduction and his voice was phenomenal and the set was fun and
contained new material from Blancmange’s latest album ‘Commute 23’ and of
course the hits ‘Living on the ceiling’, ‘Waves’ and ‘Blind Vision’.

Older
tracks and newer material blended in very well with one another and the whole
experience was simply awesome

xxx

The Human League were on
top form and the show was superb both sonically as well as visually. The set started
off with a lone Philip Oakey singing the classic ‘Being Boiled’, contained
tracks like ‘Sky’ and ‘Tell me when’ as well as ‘Love Action’ and, of course, ‘Don’t
you want me?’ and ended with the Giorgio Moroder / Philip Oakey collaboration
track: ‘Together in electric dreams’.

Philips voice was amazing
and so was Susan’s. Joanne didn’t quite come across as confident as her
bandmates at times but the league truly are ‘a very British synthesizer band’
as well as a national treasure and the audience simply couldn’t get enough of
them and the feeling felt mutual.

2 comments:

I was at the concert and thought it was one of their best yet. Saw Human League 2 years ago at The Civic Wolverhampton and felt the Birmingham arena a much better venue acoustically and size wise.Joanne was poorly hence her look of enthusiasm. She couldn't do the encore the following night as was nearly passing out. Think the band were all getting over 'the lurgy' so we were lucky they stayed well enough to do full performance. Here's to the next tour in 2018.